In the semiconductor industry, solder balls may be used to electrically couple components of an electronic system. For example, solder balls may be formed on two components intended to be electrically coupled to form a packaged end product. This process may conventionally include forming solder bonds through intimate contact of two or more solder balls from the two components. A subsequent heating step may be performed to assist with forming a solder contact between the two components. The process of joining and heating the solder balls, however, may occasionally result in incomplete solder contacts, which may be the result of defects occurring during the process.
Semiconductor packaging substrates may include metallic traces and connection locations for providing electrical connections between a semiconductor chip and a printed circuit board. The metallic connection locations may have a solder ball formed thereon to provide a bonding location for a solder ball of a semiconductor chip. The solder may be used to form a low temperature electrical connection between the semiconductor chip and the metallic traces on the substrate. Due to the defects and missed solder contacts that may result in the solder ball to solder ball contact formation, it may be helpful to omit one or more of the solder balls from the bonding process. Omitting the solder ball from one of the components, however, may have unintended consequences resulting in subsequent packaging problems. As such, packaging substrates and methods of forming the same to address both types of problems (solder ball to solder ball contact defects and the unintended consequences of eliminating one of the solder balls) may be highly desired.